Merlin's Laundry
by RicardianScholar Clark-Weasley
Summary: sequel to Merlin's Mentor. all the knights of the round table want Merlin to do their laundry, even Leon will stoop to the stupidity of Arthur, Gwaine, and Lancelot!


**Author's Note: sequel to Merlin's Mentor. Keep an eye out for its own sequel sometime in the future, I'm thinking about Merlin's Birthday...**

"Here you go Gwaine," Merlin said cheerfully as he passed a pile of clean and neatly folded clothes to the knight. "I used my mother's lavender that I picked from my last visit."

Gwaine sniffed his clothes and sighed blissfully. "Smells delightful Merlin, and how is your beautiful mother?"

"Still able to live without men," Merlin retorted. He really wouldn't put it past Gwaine for trying to seduce his mother if they ever met.

Gwaine threw back his head and laughed while Arthur appeared at his shoulder scowling. "Why is it," Arthur said angrily, "that you have plenty of time to do Gwaine's laundry but no time at all to do mine? Aren't I the one who is paying you to do my laundry?"

"Wait in line," Lancelot scowled appearing at Gwaine's other shoulder, "Merlin promised to do my laundry next."

"And ours," Percival, Elyan and Leon said blatantly eavesdropping when they should be practising battle strategies.

Arthur's eye twitched. "Don't you have a sister to do yours Elyan?" he asked trying to keep his voice calm.

"Yeah...but don't tell Gwen this but Merlin washes clothes better than Gwen ever could. He uses all these nice scents like lavender and rosemary and once even lemon!" Elyan said enthusiastically.

"Merlin, you girl!" Arthur snickered causing Merlin to blush.

"By calling him that you just proved you don't deserve him to do your laundry," Lancelot sniffed.

"I'm paying him to do my laundry, what are you giving him?"

"Drinks," Gwaine said cheerfully.

"No you buy your own drinks instead of him buying them for you," Lancelot corrected Gwaine. "I actually say please and thank you for a start, do you actually do that Arthur?" Arthur found the wall behind Lancelot far more interesting. "And I do favours for him in return, like covering for him."

"Thank you Lancelot," Merlin said sarcastically as Arthur glared at him.

"Face it Arthur, you don't actually pay Merlin that much do you?" Leon said. "Especially considering that he's not just doing your laundry but polishing your armour, serving your meals, cleaning your chambers, following you everywhere to do everything for you, if you want him to do your laundry pay him extra. I'm paying two pounds to get all my uniforms done."

"I am not paying Merlin a penny for every sock he washes!"

"Why not? You're the one with the king's fortune."

"Which is used for the betterment of my kingdom not to clean my socks!"

"You mean it's used to buy more clothes for me to wash," Merlin corrected.

"Shut up Merlin! Though I must admit there's more in the treasury since we stopped paying for Morgana's wardrobe..."

Everyone snorted.

"The point is, Merlin is doing my laundry tonight not yours!" Lancelot said quickly before anyone could ask Merlin to do theirs instead.

Everyone began to shout at one another.

"I'M PAYING HIM TO DO IT SO HE COULD DO MINE FIRST!"

"GWEN DOESN'T HAVE THE TIME TO DO MINE BECAUSE OF YOU PRINCE CHARMING!"

"I'M PAYING HIM TOO!"

"SO AM I, JUST WITH DRINKS!"

"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU ARGUING HE'S ALREADY DONE YOURS!"

"Well that's because I'm his favourite best friend," Gwaine said smugly.

"NO YOU'RE NOT!" Arthur and Lancelot bellowed in unison.

Percival suddenly found the sky a very interesting thing, Leon had quietly begun to...erm...bribe, well not really bribe just offer a pay rise, Merlin into doing his laundry now and Elyan can see Gwen staring at them across the courtyard and thought it best to suck up to her while her boyfriend neglects her in favour of his laundry.

"Will you all be quiet!" Gaius hissed appearing out of nowhere making them all jump. He stood there looking very ordinary but there was a terrifying fury that they haven't seen since he kicked Lancelot, Arthur and Gwaine out of his chambers. "You are disturbing not only the peace of this kingdom but my patients who very much need a rest! If you are so determined to have Merlin do your laundry then maybe you should do his to get his favour! Lord knows that the boy is too busy doing yours to actually do his, he's been wearing the same pair of underwear two weeks straight!"

"Gaius!" Merlin squeaked with a deep blush.

"I can hardly stand the smell coming out of your bedroom Merlin," Gaius said without any pity for Merlin. He dropped a large sack on the ground and it opened up to reveal Merlin's shirts and scarves. "Resolve both problems by having the one who is most desperate to have their laundry done do yours first."

Merlin sniffed irritably. "If they can do mine they can do theirs."

"If they scratch your back you can scratch theirs," Gaius said vaguely before leaving.

Lancelot warily picked a shirt of Merlin's and took a sniff – he grimaced, it smelt dreadful! "You really are too busy to do your own laundry," he said.

Gwaine picked up something that looked remarkably girly that fell out of the shirt. "Still cross-dressing, Merlin?" he teased as he held up a pair of knickers.

"They're Freya's!" Merlin protested with a deep blush.

"My god, Merlin," Arthur said holding up a dress, "You really are such a girl!"


End file.
